


Another Way

by Imagination_Parade



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon, Attempted Seduction, Bickering, Bodyswap, Dialogue Heavy, Episode: s04e10 And Some Dude Named Jeff, F/M, Gen, Humor, Mischief, Pranks and Practical Jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 16:11:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13505079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imagination_Parade/pseuds/Imagination_Parade
Summary: Cassandra and Baird opt for a different tactic to expose Jenkins's body stealer.





	Another Way

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working on something longer right now, but this popped into my head after the last episode and wouldn't leave, so I took a bit of a writing detour...enjoy :)

“How could it be somebody else in Jenkins’s body?” Jacob Stone asked in a quiet but frantic tone. “How could that happen?”

“You say that like we _haven’t_ encountered stranger things than body snatching,” Ezekiel countered, also in a hushed voice. “You say that like we haven’t encountered _body snatching_!”

They, along with Baird and Cassandra, were having a secret team huddle in the main room of the Annex, standing in a tight circle near the large table in the center of the room. Something was wrong with Jenkins, of that much they were all sure. Stone and Cassandra had taken their suspicions to Baird after their brief conversation in the Library, and she’d pulled Ezekiel in, too. Without their resident expert to ask for advice, they were going to have to face this problem on their own. They just needed a plan to get to the bottom of things before they could then figure out how to get their beloved caretaker back.

“But, I don’t know, what if he’s just…” Ezekiel said, trailing off.

“Just what?” Cassandra whispered urgently.

“Well, he’s not getting any younger!” Ezekiel suggested.

“He’s not going to go senile _overnight_ ,” Cassandra argued with an exasperated sigh.

 “No, I think Cassandra and Stone are right,” Baird said. “There’s definitely something magical going on.”

“Body swappin’ is kinda an extreme conclusion, though,” Stone said.

“No,” Cassandra argued. “That’s not Jenkins.”

“How do you know?” Ezekiel asked.

“Because _I know_!” Cassandra cried.

“I’m inclined to agree,” Baird said.

“Thank you!” Cassandra cried again.

“ _Everything_ about him is off,” she argued. “And like Ezekiel said, we’ve seen stranger.”

“And how are we going to _prove_ it’s not actually Jenkins?” Ezekiel asked. “We just going to walk up to him and say, ‘Hey mate, I don’t know who you are, but can you kindly vacate that body, please?’ What if we’re wrong?”

“We can’t do that anyway,” Stone argued. “We don’t know what happened to Jenkins!”

“What do you mean?” Baird asked.

“Is he in someone else’s body? Is he in there and just…suppressed somehow? We don’t know!” Stone argued.

“He’s got a point,” Cassandra said, waving her finger towards Stone. “Nothing with magic is a foregone conclusion.”

“I still think he could just be under a spell or somethin’!” Stone said.

“It’s. Not. Jenkins!” Cassandra argued again, punctuating each word.

“Then _who_ is it?” Ezekiel asked.

“That guy,” Cassandra realized, her eyes wide again.

“What guy?” Baird asked. Cassandra points towards the mirror.

“That guy…that one who was trying to get into the Library. That…that was Jenkins!” Cassandra said.

“That something else you just _know_?” Ezekiel taunted. Cassandra and Stone spoke at the same time in response.

“You _never_ take me seriously anymore!” Cassandra cried.

“How would that random guy even know enough about us to…” Stone started.

“Uh, the same way your little _journalist friend_ knew…” Ezekiel said, beginning to speak over them, too.

“ _Okay_ ,” Baird said, putting the rapidly exploding argument to an end. “Let’s go with the basic idea that someone other than Jenkins has somehow occupied Jenkins’s body. How are we going to prove it?”

As the guys continued to bicker over what was going on and what they should or should not do to find out for sure if their suspicions were correct, an idea dawned on Cassandra, her eyes widening slightly. She silently grabbed Baird’s arm.

“Can I talk…for a minute?” Cassandra asked, pointing towards the other room.

“Yeah,” Baird shrugged, not blaming her for wanting to get away from the madness that always seemed to follow the three Librarians these days. She started following Cassandra out into the hallway.

“Where are you two going?” Ezekiel noticed.

“We’ll be right back,” Baird promised. The women turned into the hallway, out of view of the men, and Baird asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I have an idea,” Cassandra said.

“Okay,” Baird said.

“He hit on me,” Cassandra said. “Jenkins or…whoever’s in there right now – he basically propositioned me for sex earlier.”

Baird curled her face into a disgusted grimace. “So definitely not Jenkins,” she said. “Is that why you’re so sure of this?”

“Yes,” Cassandra said.

“And you were too embarrassed to say that in front of the guys?” Baird asked with a grin.

“They’d make some dumb joke about Jenkins being mortal now, but I _know_ it’s not him because…” Cassandra started, her face contorting into a mortified cringe.

“Because?” Baird prompted.

“Because I asked Jenkins out last year, and he said no,” Cassandra revealed. “So he would never say those things to me now unless he suddenly meant them, which is highly unlikely, and he wouldn’t do it like _that_.”

“You _what_?” Baird exclaimed. “When?”

“When I thought I was about to die.”

“Oh, Cass…” Baird sighed with sympathy. “I always thought you had a little bit of a crush on him, but I didn’t think it was the kind of crush that…”

Cassandra held up her hand, halting her speech. “It’s okay,” she insisted. “I love our relationship for exactly what it is, and I wouldn’t change it for the world, and the _real_ Jenkins knows that, and you and I can talk about it later, but um, it does provide an opening here.”

“What do you mean?” Baird asked.

“What if I went back to him and said yes?” Cassandra wondered.

“Do you _want_ to say yes?” Baird asked, suddenly looking somewhere between disgusted and appalled.

“ _No_!” Cassandra quickly exclaimed, drawing the word out in outrage.

“Okay,” Baird said with a relieved chuckle. “You scared me there for a second.”

“We don’t even know who that is! How could you think I’d want to…” Cassandra rambled. “ _Ew_!”

“Okay, hey, I’m sorry,” Baird interrupted. “But I’m not following this idea. Why would you say yes?”

“Because I think he’s probably all talk,” Cassandra said. “He’s not really expecting any of those advances to be returned, and I’m sure he has _no idea_ that Jenkins and I had…” She rolled her eyes as she said, “Well, not a _thing_ , but…”

Baird chuckled at the possibility Cassandra was presenting and said, “Okay, I’m with you. Throw him off and swoop in for the kill. What do you need me for?”

“Backup,” Cassandra said. “In case I’m very, very wrong about how he’ll react.”

“Good point,” Baird nodded.

“And I don’t want the guys to know I asked Jenkins out,” Cassandra admitted. “I wasn’t planning on ever telling _you_ , either, but…”

“Secret’s safe with me,” Baird promised. “Come on.”

Baird placed a hand on Cassandra’s shoulder to steer her back into the Annex, where Stone and Ezekiel were still discussing what to do about the current situation with Jenkins. Cassandra stood quietly at the end of the table next to Baird as neither guy seemed to notice their arrival. Baird whistled to get their attention and ordered them to go find a book on body swapping or body snatching or just anything that might help them reverse this.

“But…” Ezekiel started. Baird cut him off.

“Go,” she said. “Now.”

“What are you two gonna do?” Stone asked.

“Cassandra knows Jenkins better than any of us,” Baird pointed out. “We’re going to go take care of revealing his impostor.”

Stone and Ezekiel shared a look before heading out of the Annex. Baird looked at Cassandra once they’d gone.

“You ready?” she asked. Cassandra nodded. Baird glanced at the desk behind her and said, “You know, we could probably just ask him to translate one of those scrolls or something.”

Cassandra tilted her head in a silent contemplation for a moment before stating, “Messing with him seems more fun.”

“Yeah,” Baird agreed with a grin.

 

Baird and Cassandra slowly wandered through the Library, looking down every aisle they passed for signs of Not-Jenkins when the screeching of Pandora’s Box and another, decidedly human scream filled the air. The women looked at one another, and Cassandra rolled her eyes as they hurriedly traveled in the direction of the noise, hoping it wouldn’t also draw Stone and Ezekiel’s attention that way. Once they’d found their target, he was on the far end of the aisle of books and artifacts. Baird stayed where she was, out of sight, and Cassandra ran down the aisle behind his.

“Jenkins!” she cried, turning the corner nearest him.

“ _Cassie_!” Not-Jenkins called, matching her tone. He stood a little straighter, delicately placed the box back on its pedestal, and said, “I mean…Miss Cillian. What can I do for you?”

“About that double straw margarita…” she said slowly. Her eyes narrowed in a bit of a seductive gaze as she gazed at him, her mouth hanging opening on the last syllable.

“Y…yeah?” Not-Jenkins stuttered, suddenly not liking where this conversation was headed.

“Let’s do it!” she said with excitement.

“Let’s…” he said with surprise, turning to face her.

“It’s not _exactly_ the romantic dinner I had hoped for last year, but hey, why not? It gets us to the same place in the end, right?” Cassandra said, creeping closer to him.

“The same place?” he asked.

“You and me,” she said with sparkling blue eyes. She grabbed the side of his jacket, leaned into him a little, and with a little wiggle of her brow, said, “Making a little magic.”

“Uhh…” he sputtered, completely caught off guard.

Cassandra took another step towards him, grabbing both sides of his jacket with each one of her hands. She stood up on her toes and leaned into his body as she whispered, “I knew you’d change your mind.”

“What?” he asked, lost and confused. “ _Me_ change…?”

“When you lost your immortality, I…I was devastated, obviously, because you know how I feel about you, but I thought that maybe…since that more or less made us equals now…” Cassandra said. Things were getting just a little too real, so she lowered herself back to the ground, put on the enthusiastic smile again and said, “You know what? That doesn’t matter. I _knew_ you’d change your mind someday! Let’s go make that magic!”

She grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the end of the aisle where she knew Baird was waiting. He resisted.

“Wait, right…right now?” he said.

“Why not?” Cassandra exclaimed. She twirled them around so he was, once again, closer to Baird. “Your room or my place?”

“Your…what…?” he muttered.

“Your room’s closer; we should probably go there,” Cassandra said, speaking quickly. “I feel like I should warn you that my cuddling needs are _pretty_ substantial, but we’ll have plenty of time for that after.”

“A…after…” he stuttered, backing away from Cassandra slowly until his legs ran into a table.

Trapped, Cassandra came over to him again, her hand on his chest. “What’s wrong, _Jenkins_?” she asked, emphasizing his name. “Don’t you…” She looked and sounded almost authentically hurt as she finished with, “I thought you wanted me.”

“I…uh…I didn’t kno…I’m not…” Not-Jenkins said, scrambling for an explanation and a way out of this situation. Cassandra’s face hardened in front of him.

“You’re not Jenkins!” she cried, letting him go.

Taking her cue, Baird appeared in the aisle behind the impostor as he, realizing he’d been set up, sighed a relieved sigh. Baird’s eyes met Cassandra’s.

“ _You okay_?” Baird mouthed to the Librarian.

She hadn’t known about Cassandra’s history with Jenkins until that day, but even she realized that some of Cassandra’s words to their intruder weren’t just play. Cassandra nodded right away, crossing her arms against her chest, and Baird slipped past the shaken man. She high-fived a now-smug looking Cassandra and turned on the man who looked like Jenkins.

“I knew it,” Cassandra said, shaking her head. “I knew he was a fake.”

“So, _Jenkins_ , what do you have to say for yourself?” Baird asked.

“I’m not really Jenkins,” he admitted.

“Yeah, we got that,” Baird said.

He looked at Cassandra and said, “I had no idea that you… _man_ , hitting on you totally blew it, didn’t it?”

Cassandra shook her head in the affirmative and said, “Big time!”

“Come on,” Baird said. She hooked her hand around the side of his jacket, guiding him towards the center aisle to lead him back to the Annex and meet back up with the rest of their team. Cassandra followed close behind. Baird looked up at the impostor again and said, “You’ve got some explaining to do.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! All feedback is, of course, appreciated.


End file.
